1979 German Grand Prix
July 29 |officialname = XLI Großer Preis von Deutschland |circuit = Hockenheimring |location = Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |circuittype = Permanent racing facility |lapdistance = 6.789 |laps = 45 |distance = 305.505 |pole = Jean-Pierre Jabouille |polenation = FRA |poleteam = |poletime = 1:48.48 |fastestlap = 1:51.89 |fastestlapdriver = Gilles Villeneuve |fastestlapnation = CAN |fastestlapteam = |fastestlapnumber = 40 |winner = Alan Jones |winnernation = AUS |winnerteam = |second = Clay Regazzoni |secondnation = SUI |secondteam = |third = Jacques Laffite |thirdnation = FRA |thirdteam = }} The 1979 German Grand Prix, officially known as the XLI Großer Preis von Deutschland, was the tenth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, staged at the Hockenheimring on the 29 July 1979.'German GP, 1979', grandprix.com, (Inside F1 Inc., 2016), http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr323.html, (Accessed 30/12/2018) The race would see secure their second victory in as many races, and their ever one-two result. Qualifying would see Jean-Pierre Jabouille and claim pole position, edging out Alan Jones in the #27 Williams by a quarter of a second. Jacques Laffite was next ahead of Nelson Piquet and Championship leader Jody Scheckter, while Jones' teammate Regazzoni would start from sixth. However, having been beaten to pole there would be no stopping Jones from taking an instant lead at the start, with the #27 Williams sprinting ahead of the #15 Renault as the lights flashed to green. They were chased by Laffite and Scheckter, while a poor start for Piquet saw him slip behind Regazzoni. An intense duel for the lead would develop during the early stages of the race, with Jabouille throwing everything he had at Jones to take the lead. Indeed, midway through lap eight it seemed as if the Frenchman had finally managed to oust the Australian ace from the lead, only to spin out of the race at the back of the circuit. Jones was hence left with a healthy lead at the front of the field, for his and Jabouille's frantic pace had moved them well ahead of the now second placed Laffite. All eyes would subsequently switch to the once the fight for the lead had concluded, for Jones' teammate Regazzoni was closing in on Laffite having just vaulted past Scheckter. Ultimately the race for second would be over with two thirds of the race left to run, for Regazzoni simply sent his Williams skating inside the Ligier at the first chicane. He duly charged away in a vain attempt to catch his teammate, while Laffite was left with a healthy lead over Scheckter in fourth. Indeed, barring a wave of retirements for drivers running in fifth place that was it for the race, with Jones sweeping home three seconds clear of Regazzoni to claim his and Williams' second victory. Regazzoni was a satisfied second, almost twenty seconds clear of Laffite at the chequered flag, with Scheckter, John Watson and Jochen Mass completing the scorers list. Background The Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg would again host the German Grand Prix in , with most of those in the F1 world accepting that the legendary Nürburgring was not going to return.D.S.J., 'The German Grand Prix: A Williams one-two in the Hockenheim Stadium', motorsportmagazine.com, (Motor Sport Magazine, 01/09/1979), https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/september-1979/69/german-grand-prix, (Accessed 30/12/2018) Indeed, although the Hockenheimring was no substitute for the dramatic dips and dives of the Nordschleife, the colossal stadium section did at least give the Grand Prix a strong financial basis, with a 90,000+ crowd virtually guaranteed. Regardless, it was business as usual as the 25 of the regular field arrived in Germany for the race, with everyone bar Jean-Pierre Jarier making the trip. Jarier's absence from the squad was to be explained by a serious liver complaint, which had left the Frenchman in hospital as the British squad made the trip to Hockenheim. Ken Tyrrell had hence been forced to find a replacement at short notice, and duly settled on Geoff Lees, a driver whom he had reportedly wanted to give a drive back in . The Brit duly joined Didier Pironi in time for the first practice session of the weekend, with the pair using the same trio of 009s as used at the British Grand Prix. Elsewhere the dominant victors of the British Grand Prix, , arrived with a significant bounce to their step, with Frank Williams and Patrick Head determined to use their new momentum to their advantage. Indeed, in the two weeks since the battle of Silverstone the Williams squad had built a fourth FW07, which was duly handed to Alan Jones for the weekend. Clay Regazzoni, meanwhile, would continue to use his race winning car, while Jones' pole sitting chassis from Silverstone became the team's communal spare. had also been busy during the break, although they had not spent time developing their newest creation, the Lotus 80. Indeed, it seemed as if the Norfolk squad had abandoned the concept for the time being, and had instead spent time refining their compliment of Lotus 79s that had been all conquering just twelve months earlier. Various tweaks to the rear suspension had been made to appease their duo of Mario Andretti and Carlos Reutemann, with the latter far happier than the former. , in contrast, had completed work on a second example of their newest creation, which already looked to be a vast improvement on its predecessor despite only being one race old. Indeed, the second of the M29s was built at record speed to bring Patrick Tambay parity with team leader John Watson, with Watson's old M28C becoming the team's spare. There were no changes made to the design after its debut at Silverstone, with McLaren's engineers instead focused on preparing a third M29. Elsewhere, had simply swapped their trio of cars around for the second race in succession, although both Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve were concerned at their sudden lack of pace compared to their rivals. Likewise, could not explain why they had fallen away from the top of field in recent races, and would hence arrive with a variety of minor changes to their compliment of JS11s. Yet, many doubted that their issues were to do with the car, and were instead to be found in the fact that Jacques Laffite no longer had Patrick Depailler to keep pushing him to perform. Indeed, while Jacky Ickx had demonstrated that he was a safe pair of hands, his ageing talents were no match for Depailler's more aggressive style. , meanwhile, were keeping their heads down, with no changes for Niki Lauda or Nelson Piquet's BT48s, although they were to receive greater support from Alfa Romeo's engineers as the Italian squad opted against sending their own car to Hockenheim. were in a very similar position, having no reason to mess with either of Jean-Pierre Jabouille or René Arnoux's RS10s, although they did have a van full of spare engines to support their team. Another unchanged team were , who ran out of time to build a spare A2 for their duo of Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass, while had their new car in action again for Keke Rosberg. Over at time had been spent incorporating more elements of the Lotus 79 into their compliment of DN9s, with Jan Lammers' car getting a new rear-end layout to drag the suspension and exhaust out of the airflow. This change had already been applied to Elio de Angelis' car at Silverstone. Elsewhere, decided that their newest car, the F6A was finally ready to reappear, with Emerson Fittipaldi getting a completely redesigned car to play with in the Black Forest. Completing the field would be the single car entries of , and Team Rebaque, with no changes for their drivers Hans-Joachim Stuck, Arturo Merzario and Héctor Rebaque. Into the Championship and victory for Regazzoni in the UK had propelled the Swiss ace into the middle of the top ten, and left him ahead of defending Champion Andretti. At the top of the standings, meanwhile, there had been very little change, although Scheckter had extended his lead at the summit to six points as his closest challengers failed to score. Ergo, Villeneuve had remained in second ahead of Laffite, while Depailler remained ahead of Reutemann. In the International Cup for Constructors it was had been another profitable day for Ferrari at Silverstone, with the Italian aces leaving the UK with a fifteen point lead over Ligier-Ford Cosworth. The French squad were still in a secure second however, largely due to Team Lotus-Ford Cosworth's dramatic loss of form, while victory in Britain had propelled Williams-Ford Cosworth into fourth ahead of Tyrrell-Ford Cosworth. Renault, meanwhile, would slip to sixth, while McLaren-Ford Cosworth finally broke into double figures after their miserable campaign. Entry List The full entry list for the is outlined below: Practice Overview Qualifying Qualifying/practice would follow the standardised format introduced at the 1979 United States Grand Prix West, with four sessions split evenly between race practice and qualifying to set the grid. The afternoon periods on Friday and Saturday would serve as the qualifying sessions for the field, leaving the morning sessions on both days to allow the field to prepare for the race. As for a target time the old qualifying record of 1:51.90, set by Mario Andretti in 1978, was expected to be enough to qualify, but not enough to claim pole. Friday Qualifying The first practice session of the weekend would see most of the drivers have at least one-off in the stadium section, which was rather dusty after some recent work on the concrete grandstands. This dust was particularly damaging to the ground-effect cars, for it would cause the cars to slide off the circuit which could then result in the fragile sideskirts being destroyed. Indeed, both s, Keke Rosberg's and Jean-Pierre Jabouille in the would require a new set of skirts for their cars come the end of the session. Come the start of the opening qualifying session on Friday afternoon temperatures had climbed significantly, although the entire field had their cars in a healthy enough condition to take part. Indeed, it was one of those to have issues earlier in the day that would set the early pace, with Jabouille quickly getting under Andretti's old record. He duly dropped into the sub-1:50.00s before most had got off a lap better than the old record, before ending the afternoon on provisional pole with a 1:48.48. The stunning pace of Jabouille in the early stages meant that the rest of the field were in a fight for second, with Alan Jones the one leading the hunt. It was not all plain sailing for the Australian, however, for he would start the session in the spare , before trying to switch to his race car after it had had a new gearbox installed. Unfortunately Jones would only complete one lap in the new car before it developed a loss of oil pressure, returning to the pits to find that his mechanics were taking apart the spare car to replace the skirts. Jones would only manage to get back out of the pits at the end of the session, by which time his early effort of 1:50.86 had been bumped back down to sixth. Fortunately for him none of his rivals in the fight for second had managed to record a sub-1:50.00 time, meaning he was only a fraction behind. It therefore came as little surprise when Jones shot back into second in the closing minutes of the session, recording a 1:49.94 to move back ahead of Jacques Laffite. Into the stragglers and both of the s would lose time during the session despite being in the fight for second, Niki Lauda with a niggling exhaust issue, while Nelson Piquet saw his Alfa engine detonate itself in the stadium. Héctor Rebaque, meanwhile, would find himself walking back from the far end of the circuit after his gearbox failed, while Arturo Merzario never made it out of the paddock with multitude of issues with his self-built car. That the Italian racer in the danger zone to miss out on a spot on the grid, while Rebaque's best effort had been just enough to keep him ahead of Patrick Gaillard. Saturday Qualifying There would be a lot of experimentation during the Saturday morning practice session, with a variety of approaches taken to improve top speeds down the Hockenheimring's ample straights. Indeed, both Williams and the team would remove the fins from their nose cones, with Jones back in his race car after his oil pressure issue had vanished over night, while fiddled with their engines to coax a few more rpm from them. Elsewhere had looked imperious until René Arnoux's engine expired late in the session, which would not have been a problem in itself had the spare car not been setup for the lanky Jabouille, rather than the short Arnoux. The Frenchman was hence forced to miss the second and final qualifying session. Into the final qualifying period and temperatures were again on the hotter side, prompting Jabouille to simply sit in the pits and wait to see if anyone managed to match his Friday effort. That opened the door for the two Williams to dominate the session, with both Jones and Clay Regazzoni deciding it would be best if they ran with their front wings. Ultimately both would get into the low 1:50.00s before the midway point in the session, when there would be an unplanned 20 minute pause to proceedings. Indeed, news would filter through of a huge accident at the back of the circuit, with bits of Carlos Reutemann's car strewn across the track. Fortunately the Argentine had escaped unharmed, but his Lotus 79 had been obliterated in the accident, causing a made rush in the Lotus garage to prepare the spare car which had been setup for Andretti. Reutemann duly made it back to the pits in the back of a support vehicle, just in time to strap himself into the spare car as the session restarted. The second phase of the session would see Jones try his hardest to match Jabouille's best effort, but would ultimately fall shy of the Frenchman's flyer despite getting well into the 1:48.75s. His run did at least prompt Jabouille to come out of his garage, although the imperious Frenchman did not bother to push his car to the limit. Indeed, in a somewhat demoralising display Jabouille would record a series of laps in the low 1:50.00s, before ending the session with a 1:49.75. A late flurry would further sort the rest of the top end of the grid, with Laffite, Piquet and Lauda all waiting until the final minutes, and the coolest conditions, to set their best efforts. The ploy would work for the former two, who duly jumped into third and fourth, while Lauda just fell shy of beating Jody Scheckter and Regazzoni, the first of those outside of the 1:49.00s. Didier Pironi was also in that group for , beating Gilles Villeneuve by a fraction, while Arnoux just held onto a top ten spot despite failing to get out at all in the second session. At the back of the field, meanwhile, there would be a late duel to qualify between Rebaque and Gaillard, with each getting one set of the super soft Goodyear tyres. Ultimately it was Rebaque who won their little duel, besting the Frenchman by 0.09s, although they were almost a second and a half off of Hans-Joachim Stuck in twenty-third. Gaillard was hence listed as first reserve, while Merzario's team had already packed up their things, the Italian having failed to set a lap time below two minutes. Qualifying Results The full qualifying results for the are outlined below: *T Indicates a driver used their test/spare car to set their best time in that session. *'Bold' indicates a driver's best/qualifying time. Grid Race Raceday proved to be another warm affair, with overnight rain during Saturday having helped wash away the worst of the remaining dust from the Stadium. The pre-race warm-up would pass without issue, barring a gearbox complaint for Niki Lauda, with no major issues for teams to solve during the support races for Renault 5s and the local touring car series. The Grand Prix cars duly rolled out of the pits half an hour prior to the 2:00pm start time, before all twenty-four qualifiers made it around the parade lap to take the start. Report It was Alan Jones who ultimately reacted fastest to the starters lights, streaking ahead of pole sitter Jean-Pierre Jabouille to lead the field through the Nordkehre and through to the first chicane. Jabouille, meanwhile, would unsuccessfully hold onto second as Jacques Laffite squeezed inside the through the first corner, while Jody Scheckter shot into fourth ahead of Clay Regazzoni. The rest of the field made it through the first corner without issue, leaving Patrick Gaillard's to be wheeled back into the paddock. Jabouille was expected to power past both Jones' and the of Laffite on the run to the first chicane, so it came as a surprise when the Frenchman flashed through the chicane still behind his compatriot. Indeed, Jabouille would only manage to get his Renault ahead of Laffite's Ligier on the return run towards the Stadium, a delay which had allowed Jones to build a small lead. The Williams duly danced through the Stadium section still ahead of the Renault, while Laffite slotted his Ligier under the yellow-white car's rear wing. With that came the end of the opening tour, with Jones leading Jabouille and Laffite in a tight bunch at the head of the field. The briefest of gaps then came before Scheckter led the next bunch through, with the entire field bar Hans-Joachim Stuck coming through in a long line. The reason for the German's absence was to be discovered a few moments later, with the limping into the back of the paddock after suffering a suspension failure at the second chicane. There would be more excitement during the second lap of racing, with the two s swapping places, while Gilles Villeneuve found himself losing positions down the straights as his engine seemed down on power. Indeed, while the sight of René Arnoux charging past came as little surprise, there was a look of disbelief in the Ferrari pit when Patrick Tambay came breezing past in his new , which had not come close to the Ferrari's straight line speed until that point. He would at least keep going, unlike Carlos Reutemann who was to have his second accident of the weekend at the back of the circuit, this one caused by Jochen Mass as the German tried a clumsy dive at the second chicane. would eventually get up to speed, before his race was ruined by a wing failure.]]The early laps soon saw the order settle out front, with Jones and Jabouille pulling clear out front, with Laffite dropping back by a few tenths each lap. In truth the Frenchman was having to keep an eye on his mirrors, which were constantly filled by the noses of Scheckter and Regazzoni. Another gap then came and went before Lauda appeared at the head of the next group, while Villeneuve's engine issue seemed to have cleared itself, allowing him to breeze past Tambay without much resistance. Jabouille would begin pushing Jones harder once they had built a relatively big gap over Laffite, and duly launched an abortive attack on lap seven. He duly tried again on the following lap, and almost managed to elbow the Renault inside of Jones' Williams as they entered the Stadium section. Jones gave him room and allowed Jabouille to run alongside him heading into the left hand Sachskurve, although that ultimately proved to be the Frenchman's downfall. Indeed, just as the German crowd celebrated the sight of Regazzoni moving ahead of Scheckter entering the Stadium, Jabouille hit his brakes on the still dusty outside line for the hairpin, and duly saw his front wheels lock-up. With no room to play with the Renault instantly skated into the gravel trap on the outside of the hairpin, before spinning as he tried to scramble back onto the circuit. Jones, meanwhile, would calmly get on the throttle and power away from Jabouille's dust cloud unaware of the Frenchman's issues, although the Williams crew were quick to tell him that he was in clear air. After that the race would settle down once again, with Regazzoni unable to deal with Laffite, while Jones continued to power away out front. There would, however, still be some pockets of excitement, as shown when Arnoux charged past Lauda on the run towards the second chicane, only to suffer a spectacular tyre failure at full speed. Miraculously the little Frenchman would prevent the car from throwing itself into the barriers, and duly executed a safe stop on the side of the circuit in a shower of sparks and shredded bodywork. A few laps later and Regazzoni finally found a way past Laffite's increasingly defensive Ligier, a lunge into the Stadium finally doing the business with two thirds of the race still to run. He duly tried to sprint away and catch his race leading teammate, although Laffite doggedly kept on his tail, knowing that Scheckter and Villeneuve, who had just cleared Lauda, were still a threat behind. However, Laffite could only keep the outclassed JS11 up with the #28 FW07 for so long, and duly began to slip away after six surprisingly strong laps. That looked to have been enough for Laffite, however, for Scheckter had settled into a cruise in fourth, while Villeneuve had burned through the best of his tyres trying to make up for his poor grid position. Indeed, the race became rather tepid from that point on, with Regazzoni able to streak clear in a vain attempt to catch his teammate. Elsewhere, Mario Andretti saw his race end with an ignominious driveshaft failure, having failed to threaten the points at all, while Piquet found himself powerless to prevent Jacky Ickx charging past. would enjoy a mid-race charge for the points.]]Indeed, the veteran Belgian racer was proving to be a lone source of entertainment, and soon began to reel in Villeneuve and Lauda, who were running nose-to-tail in fifth and sixth. Ickx duly caught the duo just after the halfway mark, although before he could send his borrowed Ligier skating inside Lauda's the Ligier's right rear tyre would blow itself apart, taking most of the rear bodywork and suspension with it. Cat-like reflexes from Ickx would prevent the Ligier smashing into the barriers, with the Belgian skating to a stop a few yards away from Arnoux's similarly retired Renault. Lauda's race was over a few laps later, an engine failure on the run out of the second chicane seeing him roll to a stop in the Stadium. His retirement meant that over a third of the field had dropped out of the race, although that news was overshadowed by a sudden loss of engine power for Jones. Indeed, the Australian's engine had picked up a small fuel injection issue which was hindering its acceleration, although it did not affect his pace out front. Elsewhere, Piquet had taken the sight of teammate Lauda's engine failure as a sign to push, and duly drew onto the back of an unhappy Villeneuve. Unfortunately for the young Brazilian his hopes of putting a move on his fellow youngster were to be denied as his exhaust system cracked apart, costing him the power he needed to ease ahead of the scarlet car. More retirements, meanwhile, would further thin the field, with Keke Rosberg and Tambay disappearing with engine issues, while Riccardo Patrese skated to a stop with a right rear tyre failure, albeit one that was not as spectacular as those suffered by Ickx and Arnoux. Villeneuve, meanwhile, would finally be put out of his misery on lap 38, dragging his Ferrari in for repairs after a rear wing support collapsed. He rejoined a lap down in ninth with four new Michelin tyres and a new rear wing, and duly set about trying to get back onto the lead lap. Indeed, just six cars remained on the lead lap as the race entered its final phase, those being Jones, Regazzoni, Laffite, Scheckter, Piquet and a very quiet John Watson. Into the closing stages and Jones noticed that he had developed a slow puncture on his right rear tyre, to add to the fuel system issue that he had picked up mid-race. Knowing that he could not afford to pit, Jones quickly managed to adapt his driving style to nurse the damaged tyre, albeit at a severe loss of pace. Indeed, the Australian was suddenly lapping a second and a half slower than he had in the early stages, with Regazzoni under no orders to hold position in second. Fortunately for Jones time would run out for Regazzoni to catch him, allowing him to pickup his first victory since the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix, and his first for Williams. Regazzoni was otherwise happy in second, having got within three seconds of his teammate on the final tour, while Laffite was still twenty seconds off in third. Scheckter was an equally distant fourth, while a late engine failure for Piquet had allowed Watson and Mass to pick up the final points for fifth and sixth. Results The full results for the are outlined below: *T Indicates a driver used their test/spare car. ** Piquet would still be classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance. Milestones * started their 300th race as an engine supplier.'10. Germany 1979', statsf1.com, (Stats F1, 2015), http://www.statsf1.com/en/1979/allemagne.aspx, (Accessed 30/12/2018) * Second career victory for Alan Jones. ** It was the Australian's first victory since the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix. ** Also the first win for a car using #27 as its race number.'1979 German GP', chicanef1.com, (Chicane F1, 2018), http://www.chicanef1.com/racetit.pl?year=1979&gp=German%20GP&r=1, (Accessed 30/12/2018) * earned their second victory. ** Engine suppliers claimed their 122nd triumph. * Clay Regazzoni finished second to secure Williams' first one-two finish. * Gilles Villeneuve recorded his fifth fastest lap of the season. Standings Jody Scheckter had managed to once again extend his Championship lead at the end of the German Grand Prix, his consistent scoring proving to be more valuable than outright pace. Jacques Laffite, meanwhile, would move up into second, seven behind the South African racer, with Gilles Villeneuve slipping nine points behind his teammate in third. Elsewhere Clay Regazzoni moved up into fourth, while race winner Alan Jones leapt into the top ten after his second F1 triumph. Likewise, in spite of not having the fastest car in the field, had managed to extend their lead in the International Cup for Constructors, leaving Germany with a healthy 14 point advantage. Their closest challengers according to the points table still appeared to be , although 's recent form had seen them leap into third, having scored 24 points in two races. Their new tally of 38 moved them a point ahead of pre-season favourites , while completed the top five. Only point scoring drivers and constructors are shown. References Images and Videos: * F1-history, 'Gilles Villeneuve (Germany 1979)', deviantart.com, (DeviantArt, 14/08/2012), https://www.deviantart.com/f1-history/art/Gilles-Villeneuve-Germany-1979-321169800, (Accessed 31/12/2018) * F1-history, 'Jacky Ickx (Germany 1979)', deviantart.com, (DeviantArt, 15/08/2012), https://www.deviantart.com/f1-history/art/Jacky-Ickx-Germany-1979-321290135, (Accessed 31/12/2018) References: Category:1979 Grands Prix Category:German Grand Prix